


Destiny Island’s (Heart) Orphanage

by orphan_account



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Can be interpreted as romance, Destiny Islands (Kingdom Hearts), Gen, Light AU, Light Powers, Not Beta Read, Not really a ship fic, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Sora is a dandelion, its an orphanage for lost children, mentions of khux story elements, no knowledge of khux is required, unchained x dandelions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21963097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When Riku loses his family and home to the darkness, he is saved by an unfamiliar boy and wakes up on the beach of Destiny Island.
Relationships: Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 14





	Destiny Island’s (Heart) Orphanage

**Author's Note:**

> Yo Cgspinoff! You wanted shy Riku so I tried my best to deliver. I’m not sure why I came up with an AU story though
> 
> Well I hope you enjoy it!

The darkness was something Riku always feared. It came rushing into his world one day and took everything he loved away from him. His parents, his friends, everything was gone. And when it came crashing over his body, it felt like dark and suffocating water that trapped him and no matter how much he struggled against it, he couldn’t escape. 

Riku was slowly suffocating and reached out to grab whatever he could find to pull him out of the darkness. When he did grab something, his eyes opened and the darkness made way to light, revealing a boy with spiky brown hair smiling at him. 

“Don’t let go now! I’ll pull you out!” the boy said and Riku realized that he had grabbed his hand. He nodded to the boy and felt the darkness giving way. The boy’s light was so strong that Riku had to close his eyes. 

When Riku opened them again, he was lying on the sand of an unfamiliar beach. The sun was shining brightly and he couldn’t see any traces of the darkness he encountered before. Riku got up and dusted his clothes off and looked around, feeling panic rising in his chest again. 

Where was he? Where was the boy that rescued him? Where were his parents? His friends? All these questions swirled inside of Riku’s head, but he had no answer to them. 

The realization of being all alone made Riku tear up. What was he going to do now? He missed his parents so much!

“There he is!” a voice interrupted him. A boy with spiky red hair followed by a boy with sky blue hair came running towards him. Riku took a few steps back when the redhead stopped in front of him, panting from exhaustion. 

“Who… who are you?” Riku asked hesitantly. 

“I’m Lea! It’s spelled L-E-A! And that’s my friend Isa! Got it memorized?” Lea said and took Riku’s hand to shake it vigorously. 

“Nice to meet you uhm…” 

“Riku,” Riku introduced himself, trying to remove his arm from Lea’s tight grip. He was unsuccessful however. 

“Right, Riku! Welcome to Destiny Islands, Riku! We’re here to bring you home!” Lea explained cheerfully. 

“Home?” Riku tilted his head in confusion. His home was far away and probably destroyed by the darkness now. It hurt to think about it, so he tried his best not to do that. 

“He means the orphanage,” Isa explained calmly. 

“Orphanage?! B-but I have a family!” Riku cried, finally managing to free his arm. “They’re not dead! They can’t be dead!” 

Lea gave him a sad look. “We lost our parents to the darkness too. Aqua told us that they aren’t dead, but unless the darkness is defeated, they’re not coming back.”

“Aqua?” Riku asked and sniffled, trying his best not to start crying. 

“She watches over us together with Terra. Come, Riku. You’ll feel better once they take care of you,” Isa explained and turned around, making his way to the center of the island. 

“Hey, wait!” Lea called and ran after his friend, only stopping when he noticed that Riku wasn’t following them. Riku bit his lip and followed the duo reluctantly, keeping his eyes on the ground.

He didn’t pay much attention to what Lea said, but he did pick up that he and Isa were the oldest kids on the island and that the darkness has destroyed worlds for many years now. But Riku didn’t care about what followed after, he just wanted to go back to his parents and the life he had before the darkness took it away from him. 

“Here we are!” Lea exclaimed happily, standing in front of a tree. When Riku looked up, he could see various little treehouses and bridges that led to the biggest one in the center. He saw kids playing around and causing mischief, but they all seemed so happy and carefree. 

“Lea! Isa!” a black haired girl called and jumped off the bridge she was standing on, landing on both of her feet. She was so much smaller than the boys, but looked like she was used to jumping from high places. 

“Hey Xion! Look! We found the newcomer!” Lea told her happily. The girl, Xion, extended her hand, but unlike Lea, she didn’t force Riku to do anything. 

“Nice to meet you! I’m Xion. You already met my brothers Isa and Lea. What’s your name?” Xion asked. 

“I’m… I’m Riku,” Riku stuttered, feeling a little anxious because of the attention he got from the trio. He took Xion’s hand nevertheless, who squeezed it shortly to show comfort before letting go. 

“That’s a very beautiful name, Riku! Have you met Aqua yet?” Xion asked, frowning when Riku shook his head. 

“Guys, why didn’t you bring him to Aqua yet?” Xion scolded the boys and Lea raised his hands in defense. 

“We forgot, okay? He just got here! Give me a break!” Lea pouted. “Anyway, we haven’t seen her on the way here. Do you know where she is?”

“Yup! She just returned to main house!” Xion explained, pointing at the big tree house in the center. “I’ll take you there if you want to, Riku.”

“Hey no fair! We found him first!” Lea protested, but Isa grabbed his collar. 

“We’ll see you later,” he said before dragging a shouting Lea away. 

Meanwhile Xion rang a bell that was attached to a branch near the base of the big tree and it lowered a wooden platform that looked like an elevator. Xion hopped onto it, gesturing to Riku to come and stand next to her. 

Riku shyly did, wringing his hands while they were ascending to the top. 

“Don’t worry Riku,” Xion said calmly. “Aqua is a very nice person! She won’t hurt you!”

Riku only nodded, but stayed quiet. When they reached the top, Xion went to the treehouse. She knocked on the wooden door and opened it when a woman’s voice called her in. 

“Let’s go, Riku!” she said and went inside, Riku following her closely. 

Inside he saw a woman with blue hair sitting at a desk. She was signing pieces of paper with quill and ink, looking up when Xion and Riku entered the room. She got up and knelt down in front of them, smiling at Xion. 

“Thank you for bringing him here, Xion,” she patted Xion on the head when she said that. 

“You’re welcome, Aqua! I have to help with cooking now. See you later, Riku!” Xion said and ran out of the room. 

“So your name is Riku?” Aqua asked and Riku nodded, avoiding eye contact. She didn’t seem like a scary person at all, but Riku didn’t feel like looking up. 

“Are you alright?” she asked, but Riku shook his head, balling his hands into firsts. He tried not to start crying again. Boys shouldn’t cry or that’s what the neighbor kids always claimed. 

Aqua gently touched his shoulder and a wave of light washed over Riku, instantly calming him down. He wondered how he didn’t notice the light before, after all Xion and Lea held his hand and he didn’t feel anything coming from them. But Aqua felt like a warm candle light, not too hot and not too cold. 

“It’s okay, Riku. You’re safe here,” she smiled and let go when Riku was no longer rigid with fear. “I know you’re hurting. Everyone that comes here is confused and scared at first, but we take care of everyone. You don’t have to feel afraid.”

That’s when the dams broke and Riku started to cry. He ran into Aqua’s chest and she held him tightly, gently patting his back as he cried his fear and pain out of his chest. 

Riku still had red-rimmed eyes when he sat down to eat lunch with all the other kids. However, it seemed that most of them were already part of their own little groups and Riku didn’t feel like he really belonged to them. He picked at his food, not feeling very hungry. 

“Why the long face?” someone asked and startled Riku. Surprisingly it was the brunette who rescued Riku that sat down next to him, carrying a plate with his own food. He was grinning at Riku, who looked at him in shock before turning attention to his food again. 

“Your name is Riku, right?” he asked while shoving food into his mouth. “Imshora!”

Riku looked mildly disgusted. The brunette quickly swallowed his food and tried again. “My name is Sora!”

Riku nodded shyly and ate his food slowly, even though he still didn’t feel hungry. Riku wondered what Sora wanted from him. He didn’t look like he was an outcast like Riku. In fact, everybody seemed to love him. 

Sora continued to watch him while Riku ate his food until he shoved it away after taking a few last bites. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t enjoy the food and having someone watching him while he ate didn’t contribute to the situation as well. 

“Hey, are you okay? You look a little pale,” Sora noticed and touched Riku’s shoulder. The moment he did, Riku felt the light almost overwhelming him. While Aqua’s light was a gentle flame, Sora’s light was raw and full of energy and it scared Riku. He jumped away from Sora’s touch, looking afraid. 

Sora immediately drew his hand away, looking surprised. They were both looking at each other, neither saying anything. Riku's heart was racing. What just happened? 

“I’m sorry Riku,” Sora apologized. “Most people can’t feel my power and I have to put extra effort into calming people down. But you felt the full force of it, didn’t you?” 

Riku didn’t understand. Power? What power? The same that Aqua had? He wanted to ask what Sora meant, but Sora got up and smiled. 

“Gotta go now! I’ll explain it to you some other time, okay? See ya!” Sora cheered and quickly left. Riku wanted to call his name, but he was too shy to do so. 

And so passed his very first day on Destiny Islands that brought him more questions than answers. 

Aqua told him that he should try and make friends with people. He tried to talk to Isa, Lea or Xion, but because he was so quiet, they probably didn’t find him very interesting. He hadn’t seen Sora ever since the incident at lunch the other day. He tried asking Aqua about what Sora meant, but she said that Sora should tell him. 

When Riku asked about Sora, everyone told him that they’re friends with him. Sora was Kind and a friendly person and everyone liked him and his carefree personality. Riku wondered once more why Sora chose to talk to him when he had so many other people to talk to and play with. 

His next chance to talk to Sora came one night. Riku had trouble falling asleep lately, so he sometimes went out to the beach. Aqua told him that the island was safe, so he didn’t have to worry about getting attacked by anyone or anything. 

The nights were always so warm and peaceful. Living on a tropical island wasn’t so bad sometimes, but he still missed his home more than anything.

Riku decided to walk along the shoreline when he spotted a figure sitting in the sand. When he walked closer to them, Riku recognized Sora, who was wearing a blanket around his shoulders and looked towards the rising moon. 

When Sora heard his footsteps in the sand, he smiled at Riku. “Can’t sleep either?”

Riku shook his head and sat down next to Sora, who looked at the water again. They were quiet for a while before Sora broke the silence. 

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Sora said, looking at Riku. 

“What is?” Riku wondered, looking confused. 

“The moon, you dummy!” Sora laughed, making Riku pout. 

“I’m not a dummy!” Riku argued, which earned him another chuckle from Sora. 

“No, I guess you’re not,” he said, turning his attention back to the water again. Riku saw the lonely look forming on Sora’s face again, gently touching his shoulder to. 

He was surprised to feel Sora’s power again, but it didn’t feel threatening anymore. It was still there, big and strong, but it felt calm. Just like Aqua’s light. 

“You’re not jumping away this time,” Sora noticed, smiling at Riku again. “I asked Aqua to teach me how to control it.”

“What is  _ it _ anyway?” Riku asked curiously. 

“I guess I owe you an explanation,” Sora said and leaned back to watch the stars. 

“Aqua told me that once upon a time all worlds were connected. But then something terrible happened and the darkness appeared, swallowing everything that stood in its way. Nothing could stop it, except for the light. She didn’t tell me what it was that happened, but it weakened the light in people’s hearts.”

Riku listened only awe. His parents told him a similar story, but he didn’t think it was true. 

Only the strongest hearts survived and survived after the darkness swallowed most of the worlds”, Sora continued. “The people whose light shined the strongest are called Dandelion because they’re scattered throughout the remaining worlds like the seeds of the dandelion flower.”

“But what does that have to do with you?” Riku wondered. 

“You felt my light, right?” Sora asked and Riku nodded in confirmation. “Aqua believes that someone in my family was a Dandelion and their power found their way to me! Aqua said that it keeps the darkness away. But I can’t really explain how I’m able to pull people out of the darkness. Everyone I rescued has no light power at all, but I see them struggling and try to help them.”

Riku frowned at that. It was true that he didn’t feel anything when he held hands with Lea and Xion, but he felt Aqua and Sora both trying to calm him down.

“What about feeling light like I do?” Riku asked. “Does anyone else feel it?”

“No, I never met anyone who could feel light as strongly as you do. My light is so strong that it can make people fall asleep in seconds if I wanted to! But Aqua has trained me ever since I was young, so I don’t go overboard with it,” Sora smiled and Riku found himself smiling back. 

“I want to protect the people that I hold dear. You, Riku, are dear to me as well! So I wanna protect you too!” Sora promised, grinning at Riku. 

“You want to protect me? You’re pretty small and scrawny!” Riku teased, earning a pout from Sora. 

“You meanie!” he cried, but joined Riku’s laughter soon after. 

Riku still didn’t know why Sora had come to him, but he stopped wondering about it. The promise to keep Riku safe meant a lot to him and it seemed that Sora didn’t make promises so lightly. 

“Hey, let’s watch the stars together!” Sora suggested, sharing his blanket with Riku. “You’ll stay right? Pretty please?”

Riku chuckled, leaning closer to his newfound friend. “Anything for you, Sora.”

They watched the stars together like this, huddled under Sora’s blanket. Aqua gave them an earful when she found them later like that and Riku ended up getting sick, but Sora visited him so he was never alone. 

And when the darkness threatened to take away what the boys loved the most once more, they were ready for it, keeping each other safe just like they had promised. 

  
  
  



End file.
